The Western Shelter, with its fish and chip shops, cafes, shops and amusement arcades has for years been the main focus for visitors to the resort.

The Western Shelter featured prominently in the Gavin and Stacey sit com, while the Eastern Shelter and Promenade was largely neglected.

But now all that is about to change.

The beach huts will be part of a £3m regeneration which will feature new walkways, toilets and a water feature.

It is all designed to boost Barry Island’s reputation as a traditional family seaside resort, and is aimed at attracting the same huge numbers of visitors Barry Island enjoyed in its 1960s heyday.

Councillor Lis Burnett, the Vale council’s cabinet member for regeneration, innovation, planning and transportation said: “The beach huts have been built in an effort to increase the attractiveness of the Eastern Promenade.

“Rental income from the beach huts will be put into the future regeneration of the Island, increasing its vitality. The huts will also provide an opportunity for some people to hire them for commercial use.”

The 12 beach huts nearest the Eastern Shelter will be bigger than the other 12 which have been designed as changing rooms for the beach.

The council has decided against selling the huts, although in other parts of the country, prices have rocketed. In some cases they cost more than houses.

From a £245,000 plush beach hut in Shaldon, Devon, to a £14,000 seafront property in Hove, East Sussex, there’s a beach hut on the market to suit every budget.

The average price for a seafront beach hut in Whitstable, Kent, is £25,000 while huts are being offered for up to £70,000 in Wells-next-the-Sea, on the North Norfolk coast. Another, in a prime position on the seafront at Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, is on the market for £18,000 and comes newly decorated in pastel colours with a 1950s floral interior.

The project fits in with the Come To The Barry Riviera campaign by the Pride in Barry group which promotes the resort as a “place offering sun, sand, sea, surfing and sailing”.

Rob Thomas, the council’s director of development services, said: “Barry Island has a distinctive sense of place which contributes to the broader character and identity of the town.

“This legacy deserves to be preserved and enhanced through conservation and adaptation of period buildings, surviving structures and improvements to public spaces.”

“The aim is to reconnect the promenade with the land above and extend the seafront character of the resort along the full length of the beach.”

Looking at the beach huts, daytripper Mary Reynolds, from Cardiff, said: “They look elegant. It would be nice to rent one for a day.”

Beach huts have had something of a renaissance in recent years, becoming popular colourful attractions on many beaches around the country.

Not so long ago, the beach hut was unfashionable, something that only elderly people would use.

But they have become increasingly popular, swept up on a tide of nostalgia and are fast becoming an essential part of the British seaside holiday.

In the early 20th century, beach huts were regarded as “holiday homes for the toiling classes”, but in the 1930s, their image revived. George V and Queen Mary spent the day at a beach hut in Sussex.

The reopening of beaches after the war led to resurgence of the British beach holiday and the heyday of the beach hut.